


Reflection

by Neyiea



Category: Epic (2013)
Genre: Gen, Post-Movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-14
Updated: 2013-06-14
Packaged: 2017-12-15 00:13:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/843081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neyiea/pseuds/Neyiea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Trapped inside the knot of a tree, Mandrake has nothing but time to think about how his plan went wrong and the ones who caused his downfall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reflection

**Author's Note:**

> Just trying to get a feel for how this pairing could even possibly take root, let alone happen.

Mandrake may be trapped inside a tree, but he’s far from gone. The growing magic of the new Queen, near constant due to the fact that he’s right inside of Moonhaven, is keeping him from escaping but his own abilities are enough to keep the inside of the knot he’s locked away in soft and decomposed instead of growing over to effectively crush him.

He doesn’t have to concentrate on keeping himself alive, the power of rot is mostly focussed around his cudgel, so he’s left with a long, long time to think.

He thinks of his son Dagda, taken from him too soon, of the arrogance of the Leafmen and their disgusting greenery, of the pod that could have been _his_ , could have been his new Dark Prince. But mostly he thinks about how, how the Leafmen could have possibly won when he’d had the upper hand.

He could have had them. Ronin was half-dead already the boy would have been no match for him. He’d had numbers, surprise and tactical advantage on his side, not to mention the years of planning. So what had gone wrong?

It was only towards the end, when the pod was almost his, that things began to spiral out of his control. After he’d left his colony they’d done something to his bats, and with them out of the way the other Leafmen were free to leave the skies and come back to Moonhaven. But who would have been able to deal with the, admittedly massive, colony that he’d brought with him?

Not even a large group of Leafmen should have been able to deal with them all so efficiently, and really, the one’s who had been the biggest thorns in his side couldn’t be responsible. Ronin was there with him, Leafman-junior as well, and who else could have-

_The girl._

There had been three who’d snuck into his home to take back his prisoners and the pod: Ronin, the boy, and the girl. She’d been important enough, reliable enough, to take on a covert mission and to be the one to carry the pod out, but she hadn’t been there at the end. He would have noticed, he was sure of it.

If she was particularly resourceful, as he suspected she might be because Boggans didn’t just drop armour where Leafmen could find it and use it to infiltrate their camp, then maybe she’d found a method to draw his bats away, perhaps by mimicking his cry.

The taste of defeat is still bitter upon his tounge, but he’s impressed. An opponent who is physically strong is one thing, but he likes a bit of cunning in his enemies. Ronin’s smarts is one of the main reasons he’s actually bothered to remember the General’s name.

He pushes thoughts of Ronin aside and instead focuses on her, the most crucial piece to the puzzle of his downfall.

He’d seen her from a distance after two of his guards fell down from above, the pink of her clothing making her an easy target. It was a wonder that no one had seen her before then.

When he gave chase he’d yelled after her, something about getting in being easier than getting out, and she’d turned to look back at him with wide, frightened eyes, holding the pod protectively.

She’d been backlit by the moon, he remembers, her hair was orange and her features soft, and she expressed her fear too clearly to be a trained warrior or spy.

Who was she then? And why had she decided to wear such an outrageously visible colour when she’d obviously rather not be seen?

He has nothing but time, so he begins coming up with theories.

Flower Jinn who’d lost her petals. Handmaiden to the Queen. Sworn protector of the pod. Personification of the pod.

Future Queen?

Thinking of her, with her strange clothes and strange shoes, dressed up as Queen was-

Well, it wasn’t too ugly of a picture, although a girl like her; so very different from himself and flushed with life, should disgust him.  
The garb of a Queen, of any Leafman or Jinn, do not seem to suit her. They look foreign and wrong, like she does not belong in them.

Like she does not even belong in their world to begin with.

That’s when it hits him.

Of course she seems so different, so alien. He’s not sure how she became so small, although the why is incredibly obvious, but she was, is, a human being.

It’s kind of ironic that a human was the key to the Leafmen’s victory, given their tendency to be unknowingly neutral.

But not her, she had chosen a side. A side that only won because of her.

What would have happened, he wonders, if she picked _his_ side?

The very idea is almost enough to make him shiver. What destruction they could have wrought, the pair of them. They could have brought all the Leafmen to their knees and watched, together, as the pod bloomed in darkness. 

He thinks of her often, memorizes every detail of her face while the appearances of others grow hazy. The only other to occupy his thoughts as much as she is Dagda.

When autumn arrives and the forest begins to slow down, starts falling asleep in preparation for winter, and the magic of the new Queen weakens slightly in response to the season, he makes his escape. He focuses his cudgel in one spot on the inside of the knot and the bark obligingly cracks apart.

By the time he’s out and on the ground the knot has already healed over. No one will ever realize he got out, until he wants them to.

_Excellent._


End file.
